Giving Yourself the Best Chance of Getting a Job in Today’s Fintech Market

We are in the middle of a global pandemic; a great deal of companies around the world are struggling for business and as a result a lot of amazing employees are losing their jobs. It really is a tough time.

One of the shining lights during these difficult economic times is the FinTech sector. Although the current crisis may have slowed its growth, it certainly has not stopped it.

In fact, there have been many reports of an uptick in usage of FinTech apps, we still hear daily reports of funding and governments have been calling on the likes of SME lenders to provide support to the economy.

Therefore, a lot of FinTech companies still need to hire and grow to meet demand and we are still as busy as ever supporting these companies in finding their talent.

The challenge for people who are looking for a role in this market isn’t the fact that they don’t exist, it’s the fact that competition for those positions is high. There is currently a big group of exceptional talent exploring new opportunities, so you are joining a long list every time you apply for a job.

It’s key you can stand out above the rest of the crowd. There is a lot of advice out there about how to stand out in a job application, but I wanted to give you our experience of what will help you be successful particularly when applying for a role in the FinTech sector.

1. Make Those Tech Skills Stand out

Many of the companies we work with will ask for candidates with specific experience with a particular tech stack. That varies job to job, so take a detailed look through their job advert, their website, and the LinkedIn profile (particularly the “Skills” section) of anyone who works there now to work out what tech that company uses.

Then really make sure they see it. It must be in the first half a page of your CV, otherwise it may not be seen by recruiters. Either put it in a “CV summary” at the start or in the details of your current or last job – or even better, both!

2. Show Them What You’ve Done

  • Have you created anything cool or interesting using the tech that you can share?
  • Have you shared anything on GitHub that people liked that they may want to see?

In most interview processes you will have to take a tech test, to demonstrate your coding skills. Get ahead of the game by displaying your ability when you’re applying through already completed projects.

3. Prepare Yourself for the Interview Properly

We see it all the time, an amazing candidate walks into an interview but is unsuccessful because they just weren’t prepared enough. And there is a tendency with video interviews to be a little complacent. Below is a list of what you should know walking in to an interview, and in brackets where you can find it:

  • The background of the person interviewing you (check their LinkedIn or Stack Overflow profile)
  • The product of the company you are interviewing with (from researching their website or by using it yourself)
  • The mission, vision, and values of the company you are interviewing with (from their website)
  • The tech that the company uses (from their website, the job advert or from LinkedIn)
  • The experience they are looking for (from the job advert or the LinkedIn profiles of current employees)
  • How to perfect a video interview (you can find lots of articles on this from typing it into Google)
  • Any questions you have about the role and opportunity

These are just three simple tips, however, if you follow them you will give yourself a significant edge over the competition and increase your chance to find your dream job in FinTech during these challenging times.

Jamie Robinson

Jamie works for Storm2, a recruitment consultancy who work purely in the FinTech sector. He has worked in the recruitment industry for around 10 years, in different markets all over the world, and now is responsible for training the consultants at Storm2 and for providing candidates and clients with extra advice to help in their job search or candidate search respectively. You can follow Storm2 on LinkedIn for latest job openings, news and advice here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/storm2